The Opposite of Cabbage
Published on 10. February 2009
Book
Hardback
64 pages
978-1-84471-513-8 (ISBN)
Description
Throughout this collection, opposites collide - reality and delusion, political activism and apathy, friend and enemy, life and death. Messiahs parachute themselves to disused northern fairgrounds, a woman diets until practically invisible, trained apes teach a colony of drunks how to dance, a bingo night fuels familial despair and love, and an airborne cabbage blasts a cyclist into orbit. With precision of language and a colourful, anarchic spirit, Mackenzie's poems focus on their subjects with humanity and hard-won compassion. They have a light touch, but are never trivial. They are for readers who trust that questions are rarely simple and answers never final. Ironic and humorous, complex and engaging, you can't do without The Opposite of Cabbage.
Reviews / Votes
Nudging at the curious in the everyday is typical of Mackenzie's work ... These are honest poems with a humane touch that takes them beyond their surface familiarities. A small book but it's consistently interesting. -- Jim Burns * Ambit * As they say, you can't break the rules unless you know them, and Mackenzie's clearly qualified to break them. -- Tim Love * Literary Reviews * Intelligent, well-crafted poems. Witty and humane, with a quiet quirkiness. -- Hamish Whyte Intellectual resourcefulness formal assurance and a copious imagination underpin MacKenzie's intuitive mastery of our post - almost- everything, huge, tiny, sad, happy, global Scottish moment -- Donny O'Rourke * Northwords Now * Intellectual resourcefulness formal assurance and a copious imagination underpin MacKenzie's intuitive mastery of our post - almost- everything, huge, tiny, sad, happy, global Scottish moment -- Donny O'Rourke * Northwords Now *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84471-513-8 (9781844715138)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rob A. Mackenzie was born in Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh. His previous work includes The Opposite of Cabbage (Salt 2009) and two pamphlets: Fleck and the Bank (Salt 2012), which dramatized a bank employee's life during the financial crisis, and The Clown of Natural Sorrow, (HappenStance Press 2005). Carrie Etter, in the TLS, wrote that his first collection impressed "with its distinctive style and energetic exploration of the way we live now." He is reviews editor for Magma Poetry magazine.
Content
Light Storms from a Dark Country
Voices
The Listeners
White Noise
Scottish Sonnet Ending in American
Fallen Villages of the North
Moving On
Scotlands
Nuclear Submarines
Everyone Will Go Crazy
The Loser
While the Moonies are Taking Over Uruguay
Berlusconi and the National Grid
Shopping List
Patenting The
Bananas
Scotland
How New York You Are
The Look
Hot Shit
Slimming
Girl Playing Sudoku on the Seven-Fifteen
Homes of the Future Exhibition
In the Last Few Seconds
Benediction
Hospital
Visiting Hour
Advice from the Lion Tamer to the Poetry Critic
A Creative Writing Tutor Addresses his Star Pupil
The Kingdom
Married Life in the Nineties
The Deconstruction Industry
Hangover Hotel
Edinburgh in Summer
Jacko Holed Up In Blackfriars Street B and B??
My Dentist, Aniela
Breaking the Hoodoo
Sevenling (Elizabeth had II)
Plastic Cork
Sky Blue
The Preacher's Ear
Holiday at the New Butlins
Glory Box
The Scuffle
Voices
The Listeners
White Noise
Scottish Sonnet Ending in American
Fallen Villages of the North
Moving On
Scotlands
Nuclear Submarines
Everyone Will Go Crazy
The Loser
While the Moonies are Taking Over Uruguay
Berlusconi and the National Grid
Shopping List
Patenting The
Bananas
Scotland
How New York You Are
The Look
Hot Shit
Slimming
Girl Playing Sudoku on the Seven-Fifteen
Homes of the Future Exhibition
In the Last Few Seconds
Benediction
Hospital
Visiting Hour
Advice from the Lion Tamer to the Poetry Critic
A Creative Writing Tutor Addresses his Star Pupil
The Kingdom
Married Life in the Nineties
The Deconstruction Industry
Hangover Hotel
Edinburgh in Summer
Jacko Holed Up In Blackfriars Street B and B??
My Dentist, Aniela
Breaking the Hoodoo
Sevenling (Elizabeth had II)
Plastic Cork
Sky Blue
The Preacher's Ear
Holiday at the New Butlins
Glory Box
The Scuffle